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Biography

Professor Eli Zysman-Colman F黑料社区 is Professor of Optoelectronic Materials at the University of St Andrews. He obtained his PhD from McGill University in 2003 under the supervision of Professor David N Harpp as an FCAR scholar, conducting research in physical organic sulfur chemistry. He then completed two postdoctoral fellowships, one in supramolecular chemistry with Professor Jay Siegel at the Organic Chemistry Institute, University of Zurich as an FQRNT fellow, and the other in inorganic materials chemistry with Professor Stefan Bernhard at Princeton University as a PCCM fellow. He joined the department of chemistry at the Universit茅 de Sherbrooke in Quebec, Canada as an assistant professor in 2007. In 2013, he moved to the University of St Andrews, where he rapidly moved up the ranks, becoming reader in 2015 and chair in 2019. In 2025, he was awarded an EPSRC open fellowship. Professor Zysman-Colman is an expert in optoelectronic materials design and their exploitation in such areas as organic light-emitting diodes, sensing, bioimaging, and photocatalysis.
 
His group focuses on the rational design of emitters for electroluminescent devices, optical sensing materials, bioimaging agents, and photocatalyst development for use in organic synthetic reactions.
 
He is Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, holder of an EPSRC open fellowship and was one of the inaugural holders of the St Andrews innovation fellowship. He is a past holder of a Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship.

I strongly believe in the value of the internationalisation of science and view collaboration as a mechanism for bringing researchers from across the globe together, breaking down barriers and stereotypes through the shared humanity of scientific discovery and enterprise.

Eli Zysman-Colman

Q&A

Can you tell us more about your work?

My group works to design and develop materials that interact with light, correlating their structure to their properties. These photoactive materials are then exploited across a range of technologies, including in displays like the ones in mobile phones, as sensors for volatile compounds like explosives, the imaging of cells, and as photocatalysts.

Who or what first sparked your interest in chemistry, and how has that interest evolved over time? 

I did an undergraduate degree in physics at McGill University, but I was considering a possible career in medicine, and so I needed to take organic chemistry classes. I loved learning the language of organic chemistry, how arrow pushing could describe bond-breaking and bond-making events. I loved the challenge of devising efficient routes to new molecules and found such problem-solving intellectually stimulating. My PhD at McGill was very physical organic in nature, while my postdocs exposed me to supramolecular chemistry and inorganic materials. It took a while to find my professional identity, but I love that I am now able to harness all the knowledge that I have gained across both physics and chemistry to design new, improved optoelectronic materials.

What does good research culture mean to you, and why does it matter? 

Good research culture means creating an environment where creative and rigorous science and those who do it can thrive, and where researchers are encouraged to work together in the pursuit of new knowledge and discovery.

How important would you say collaboration is for producing high-quality science? How has collaboration influenced your work? 

Collaboration not only improves the quality of the science but also makes it more fun to do. I strongly believe in the value of the internationalisation of science and view collaboration as a mechanism for bringing researchers from across the globe together, breaking down barriers and stereotypes through the shared humanity of scientific discovery and enterprise.

What is your favourite element and why? 

Iridium, as its complexes were the ones that first excited me about emissive materials. I love to see samples glow.